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Condo sales are sliding, right? If putting the homeless and substance addicted people into garden sheds like they're a Trailer Park Boys character is a good idea, maybe tax payers can begin to subsidize the housing of such people in all these unsellable/rentable condo units we see in all Canadian urban centres. We put them into hotels during the pandemic and that did wonders for the problem of chronic homelessness (and very much helped "flatten the curve"), so doing something like that ought to help. It's certainly cheaper than repairing and mitigating the rhizomic causes of homelessness and related issues as well as offers a much more tangible "out of sight, out of mind" solution than what our provincial judges like Michael J. Valente have been able to provide when he declared that the most ideal solution to homelessness in Waterloo Region was to create an actual Homeless Ghetto so they could all live in harmony next to a busy intersection.
Or maybe like...pull our heads out of our asses and use some of the solutions we've known have always worked.
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(09-11-2025, 04:05 PM)ac3r Wrote: Condo sales are sliding, right? If putting the homeless and substance addicted people into garden sheds like they're a Trailer Park Boys character is a good idea, maybe tax payers can begin to subsidize the housing of such people in all these unsellable/rentable condo units we see in all Canadian urban centres. We put them into hotels during the pandemic and that did wonders for the problem of chronic homelessness (and very much helped "flatten the curve"), so doing something like that ought to help. It's certainly cheaper than repairing and mitigating the rhizomic causes of homelessness and related issues as well as offers a much more tangible "out of sight, out of mind" solution than what our provincial judges like Michael J. Valente have been able to provide when he declared that the most ideal solution to homelessness in Waterloo Region was to create an actual Homeless Ghetto so they could all live in harmony next to a busy intersection.
Or maybe like...pull our heads out of our asses and use some of the solutions we've known have always worked. I do believe that some of the grassroots programs like ABTC or the Tiny Home takeout have a better outcome than the government programs. It may just be that those administering the programs are doing it more out of a sense of their own humanity rather than the bureaucratic/reelection need. Maybe we move more towards funding these non government agencies than expecting the government itself to solve the problem. There isn't an easy solution. The alternative is what some municipalities or our southern neighbours believe the solutions is, give them a one way bus ticket out of town and make them someone else's problem.
We can all help by utilizing our charitable donation income tax deductions towards improving our own community by supporting those who can actually support those in need. Actions do far more than complaining about the issue at hand and doing nothing to actually make a difference.
Nonetheless I have never felt uncomfortable walking by Weber/Victoria I've done so many times with my daughter while waking from the parking lot at Waterloo St to the GO Station. The homeless in Waterloo Region harmless, they only are scary if you choose people different than yourself are scary.
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(09-11-2025, 09:42 PM)neonjoe Wrote: I do believe that some of the grassroots programs like ABTC or the Tiny Home takeout have a better outcome than the government programs. It may just be that those administering the programs are doing it more out of a sense of their own humanity rather than the bureaucratic/reelection need. Maybe we move more towards funding these non government agencies than expecting the government itself to solve the problem.
ABTC and the Working Centre are actually largely funded by the governments.
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Kitchener Centre MPP’s bill a bid to ‘move the needle’ on housing homeless people
Aislinn Clancy pushes Bill 28 to eliminate homelessness in Ontario within 10 years through data collection, affordable housing and housing-first approach.
Aislinn Clancy is hoping to “move the needle” and provide a template to house people experiencing homelessness within 10 years, as the homeless population continues to rise in Waterloo Region and Ontario.
The Kitchener Centre MPP, along with Etobicoke-Lakeshore MPP Lee Fairclough, the former president of St. Mary’s General Hospital, co-sponsored Bill 28: Homelessness Ends with Housing Act 2025, directing the government to build a data collection and reporting strategy to eliminate homelessness within 10 years.
The bill also aims to ensure affordable housing and “deeply affordable” rental units, investment in new supportive housing, increasing portable housing units, and using a housing-first approach, quickly moving people experiencing homelessness into permanent housing without preconditions.
The bill had its first reading in May and Clancy believes the second reading will be in October or November.
She said the bill came on the heels of a deep dive by the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) into homelessness.
“The provincial government doesn’t fund mechanisms to collect data, so (AMO) did it and I think most of the context was, we shouldn’t be doing this; this isn’t really what we need to do, but we’re calling on the government to do better,” Clancy said.
“There isn’t a strategy to addressing the issue other than Bill 6, which was to put people in jail and fine them $10,000. That’s the solution that I know right now.”
An AMO 2025 report showed more the 80,000 Ontarians experienced homelessness in 2024, up 25 per cent from 2022. That number is expected to climb to 250,000 to 300,000 in the next decade, Clancy said.
In Waterloo Region, Peter Sweeney, region’s commissioner of community services, told the Record that by this winter, there will be 674 funded spaces. According to a count in October 2024, 2,371 people were experiencing homelessness in Waterloo Region, more than double the 1,085 recorded in 2021.
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Roca News - based out of the US - has started a short form video series on YouTube highlighting the utter decay in Canadian cities. So far they've released two videos, one in London and one in Hamilton. I'm not sure if they'll do one on this region although it would be one hell of a story, but it's still a good up close look at what a mess we've chosen to create.
London, Ontario:
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Have to separate the video links it seems. Below is one on Hamilton, Ontario. Some of the interviews are stupid in both videos, but it's a very objective look at the points of view of those in these situations.
They're worth a watch and give a voice to people actually stuck in these situations, who acknowledge that in large part the laissez-faire free for all policy the government has decided to run with is only making it worse.
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(09-13-2025, 09:05 PM)ac3r Wrote: Roca News - based out of the US - has started a short form video series on YouTube highlighting the utter decay in Canadian cities. So far they've released two videos, one in London and one in Hamilton. I'm not sure if they'll do one on this region although it would be one hell of a story, but it's still a good up close look at what a mess we've chosen to create.
London, Ontario:
I know from experience that downtown London is much worse than anywhere in Waterloo Region, but I think that this video gives a very narrow view of an otherwise prosperous city. There are plenty of nice neighbourhoods in London that are not like this. While I am not crazy about London, it is only because it is too car centric compared to Waterloo Region. If they filmed in London during one of the festivals in Victoria Park, like Sunfest for instance, they would have shown a very different view. They could have filmed at Covent Garden, which is much nicer than Kitchener's downtown market or a neighbourhood like Wortley Village which is near downtown. I suppose that if they come to Kitchener they will spend all of their time filming at Victoria and Weber and skip King St. downtown and Uptown Waterloo. I won't comment on the Hamilton video because I have never been there.
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I was in Hamilton last weekend, the problem there is that the homeless are scattered around instead of centralized. It seems worse than KW based on the area but it's actually not bad. London appears to be the most in need of help, but it always has. Dundas St has always been a troubled area as far as I can remember. Hamilton was on an upswing compared to my visits in the 90s but has plateaued and does need help.
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10-15-2025, 01:16 PM
(This post was last modified: 10-15-2025, 01:20 PM by ac3r.)
RocaNews has published a video on the homelessness and drug abuse in Waterloo Region, paying a visit to the slum downtown to do some interviews with the people living there. I had no idea the harm reduction workers gave out cigarettes in addition to needles (stored in a broken, unsanitary old refrigerator lmao) and drug dealer phone numbers! Good god what a mess we've created in this country. Of course it's everyone's problem but their own.
And to top it off, Julian Ichim makes a brief appearance. "It's poverty porn so I don't wanna talk!" says the guy that made being poverty and homelessness his brand. He threatens to smash their camera, so I see he still has his belligerent personality. I can't imagine why he's now sleeping on a wooden pallet outdoors...
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10-17-2025, 08:54 PM
(This post was last modified: 10-17-2025, 08:59 PM by ac3r.)
Does anyone else notice the slow, incremental decline in ease of access to over the counter drugs thanks to homeless addicts? It seems to really highlight the problems albeit in a subtle way. The most basic things are "harder" to purchase now and increasingly more and more, stores are treating every customer as a potential thief before they even walk in the door, forcing you to remove your backpack for fear of theft. I tried to buy a requested gift for someone at Canadian Tire recently, but was told I would have to relinquish control of my own backpack and stuff it into a locker only THEY had the key for in order to shop in their store...to buy a 30 dollar Made in China piece of shit kettle. They've had problems with theft, apparently. What the hell kind of policy is that to treat every customer as a potential thief before they even pick up a basket?
But about OTC drugs: some pharmacies now lock allergy and cough syrup up after a certain hour. So called Tylenol-1 (containing 8mg of codeine) is both often now unavailable/they expect your name or at least record how many sales per day occur. Funnily enough, I've had to purchase small bottles 3 times over the summer for someone from Walmart (different stores) and each time they offered entirely unprompted a naloxone/Narcan OD kit...from a pharmacist! You'd die from liver failure before you died from Tylenol products with a small amount of codeine. Convenience stores generally now only sell ginger nausea medicine (things like Gravol can be "abused"). Products such as Robaxin are similarly harder to find now, because apparently if you take enough you can get "high". There are other examples as well. It's ridiculous now.
It's an annoyance to have to deal with this sort of shit...but since blaming the people who cause problems is very taboo, what does society do in order to reverse these problems? Besides "keep giving them everything they ask for besides human dignity...and a job + free place to live" it is perplexing how we got here and how we fix it. Is it even possible to ever retvrn to a point in which we are able to look at people in the worst situations and either push them in the direction of improvement, or at least criminalize things again? I don't see how we can improve our society at a local or national level when we have judges that rule that people can legally create a slum and provide "safe use injection supplies" out of a dirty broken refrigerator while "outreach" workers hand out free cigarettes from a red party cup. All the while said slum has prevented the development of a much alluded to, promised, funded and developed intermodal train station in the heart of a region that'll house a million people soon enough.
Like, what's the answer besides stuffing them in garden sheds, which seems to be the best and only tangible solution Waterloo Region has been able to figure out? Affordable housing isn't an answer here, because the rhizomes of the problem are much deeper. That they can't seem to keep a garden shed in order illustrates that.
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Make some ultra mini homes in some lots in a thought out place, get them into addictions programs that they must participate in to get their OW.
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10-18-2025, 07:32 PM
(This post was last modified: 10-20-2025, 03:01 PM by bravado.)
(10-18-2025, 03:30 PM)Momo26 Wrote: Make some ultra mini homes in some lots in a thought out place, get them into addictions programs that they must participate in to get their OW.
The "thought out place" part is the kicker. Nobody wants this near them, or a school, or a hospital, or a church, or their office, or their favourite park, so they get built next to the actual dump at the edge of town. It's true though - putting a simple roof over somebody's head is the one thing that's been proven to help at best and stop the decline at worst, but we don't do it because the public pushback is immense.
local cambridge weirdo
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It's a tough situation. But something needs to be done.
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(10-17-2025, 08:54 PM)ac3r Wrote: I tried to buy a requested gift for someone at Canadian Tire recently, but was told I would have to relinquish control of my own backpack and stuff it into a locker only THEY had the key for in order to shop in their store...to buy a 30 dollar Made in China piece of shit kettle. They've had problems with theft, apparently. What the hell kind of policy is that to treat every customer as a potential thief before they even pick up a basket?
Years ago, I had just had my bike with new panniers and rack stolen, so I acquired another bike but had not equipped it. Anyhow, I rode to the Canadian Tire on Victoria Street to look for something and walked in with an empty backpack. An employee started harassing me about leaving my backpack at the front, but I continued on, ignoring them. Anyhow, I got fed up and left. I was then surrounded by 3 mesomorphs with bodies like Gimli in LOTR who tried to intimidate me into allowing them to search my backpack and threatening me with police involvement. Anyhow, I resisted and left, but I never shopped at that branch again.
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